Slice control mechanism



Nov. 28, 1961 A. J. clRRlTo SLICE CONTROL MECHANISM 2 Sheets-Sheet lFiled Jan. 23, 1958 BY MKM? ATTORNEYv Nov. 28, 1961 A. J. clRRlTo3,010,510

SLICE CONTROL MECHANISM Filed Jan. 23, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 3,010,510SLICE CONTROL NIECHANISM ton Corporation, Worcester, Mass., acorporation of Massachusetts Filed Jan. 23, 1958, Ser. No. 710,778 4Claims. (Cl. 162-344) This invention relates to slices for paper makingmachines, and more particularly provides an improved and highlyversatile slice control mechanism for achieving fore-and-aft as well asup-aud-down movement of the slice in such machines.

Adjustment of the slice and accurate control of the position of theouter edge of the upper slice lip are, of course, of great importance inpaper making on a Fourdriner type machine. The slice lip should becapable of operation in various positions relative to the breast roll inthe machine direction and also vertically to permit accurate adjustmentof the thickness of the slice opening independently of the upper slicefore and aft position. Variation of the latter parameter is necessary,of course, in any conventional slice, and additionally, variation in themachine-wise location of the upper slice lip during machine operationmakes possible improved control of the delivery of the stock to the wireand breast roll surface and provides improved and sometimes necessaryoperating control of certain inlet passages for the stock.

An important object of the invention is the provision of a new andimproved adjustable slice and slice lip construction, the slice platebeing flexible and formed initially to approximate the arc of a circlein the area of the seal and constrained to swing about a center ofcurvature as a fixed axis for adjustment in the machine direction and tobe exed for accurate adjustment of its lip across its entire length inthe vertical direction, the necessary linkages for the latter adjustmentbeing mounted to pivot on an axis which is spaced from the fixed axisaforesaid and which also swings about such iixed axis when the slice ispivoted.

A feature of the invention is the provision of a xed main shaft mountedat a predetermined location above the slice opening and from which thearcuate slice is suspended for swinging movement about the axis of suchshaft to provide the said machine-wise adjustment.

Another feature of the invention is the provision of a secondary shaftmounted upon arms extending upwardly from and pivoting with the mainshaft, the secondary shaft supporting the system of levers andadjusting-rods which control the vertical adjustment of the slice lipforadjusting the slice opening, such system of levers and rods beingisolated from stationary parte of the machine.

Still further objects, features and advantages of the invention willbecome apparent from the following detailed description of a presentlypreferred embodiment thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings, in which like numerals refer to like parts in the severalviews and in which:

FIG. l is a side elevation partially in cross section' taken on line 1 1of FIG. 2 through the stock inlet portion of a Fourdrinier type papermachine embodying features of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial front portions broken away; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation, showing of FIG. l, but partiallybroken away and partially in section, showing the slice mechanism of theinvention as applied to a suction breast roll type of machine.

elevation of the same with Referring to FIG. l, a form of stock inletconstruction is shown in cross section for flowing stock under pressureonto the wire of a Fourdrinier type paper machine. Since sirnilar to thei United States Patent O Fourdrinier machines are old and well ,the jackscrews 64, only one "ice known in the art, the drawings are limited tothose features of the stock inlet construction necessary to anunderstanding of the invention. The wire 10 travels around dual breastrolls 12 and 14, the former being adjustable in a machine-wise directionas indicated by the arrow, and is driven in the usual manner andprovided with conven-tional means for draining liquid passing throughthe wire and for handling the web formed thereon.

'The inlet construction has in place of the conventional head box anozzle 15 forming a passageway through which the stock is forced underpressure and spouted as a wide flat jet onto the wire 10. The passagewayis enlarged at 16 so as to contain a plurality of perforated rolls 18,20, and 22, known in the art, through which the stock passes for thepurpose of minimizing gross turbulence therein and inducing a uniformmixture and a streamlined flow. Above the discharge side of the roll 1Sthere may be provided a receiver 24 having a slot 25 opening into theinlet for taking off any foam on the top surface of the steam of stockthrough pipes 82, valves 84 and second- -ary receiver 86. The functionand operation of the receiver 24 and its associated parts form no partof the present invention and will not be described in detail.

Beyond the receiver 24 the stock passes through the inlet itself, whichis defined on the bottom by an apron 26 having a lip 27, and a two-partstock confining surface formed by the arcuate movable slice 28 having alip 29 and a thin llexible blade 30, sealed at the rear by a seal 32. Itwill be understood, of course, that the apron 26, the blade 30 andtheslice 28 extend the entire width of the machine, as indicated in FIG. 2.The construction and functioning of the blade 30 and seal 32 do not formpart of the present invention and, therefore, have not been described indetail. Conventional seal structures may be substituted therefor, ifdesired. v

The slice blade 2S and lip 29 are adjustable through a wide range byreason of the illustrated construction according to the invention. Asseen in FIGS. l and 2 a main shaft 34 is rotatably mounted in bearingsupports 35 on frame 37. At intervals along the shaft 34 a number(three, for example) of upper shaft supports 42a and 42b and slicecasting supporting arms 38a, 3S!) cooperate -to define -a hole throughwhich the shaft 34 passes, the upper shaft supports 42a, 42b and slicecasting support arms 38a, 3817 being secured together and maderotatable'with the shaft 34 by keys 40. At their lower extremities theslice support arms 38a are secured by means of bolts 39 to slice holdingcastings 41, which are in turn secured by screws 43 to the curvedflexible slice 28, toward the rear thereof. r[he shaft 34 lies on thecenter of curvature of the path of the blade tip 29. The inner arms3811, however, are provided with rearwardly extending ears 45 betweenwhich are pivotally mounted on pins 66 up-and-down jack screws64actuated by turning shaft 68 (which simultaneously correspondinglyoperates all being shown) by means of a hand wheel or power means (notshown).

The rods 60 of up and down jack screws 64 are pivotally connected attheir upper ends lthrough pins 47 to up and vrdown bell cranks 55, whichare keyed, as at 49, to upper shaft 58 for rotation thereof. Alsokeyed-to shaft 5S are the slice adjusting rod bell cranks 56, to thefronts of which are pivotally secured through pins 51'slice adjustingrods 5.4,' which may be spacedsay every five inches across themachine.The rods 54 have turubuckles 72 for individual adjustment across theslice lip` 29, and pivotally secured thereto through pins and attachingbrackets 573. The upper shaft 58 vis rotatably mounted iii' upper shaftsupports 42a, the entire shaft 58V being bodily movable` in an arc aboutthe axis of the main shaft 34. The upper shaft 5S is also rotatablymounted well as 42a being keyed to the main shaft 34 3 in upper sha-ftsupports 42b, etc., 'and cooperating fore and aft bell cranks 57, theupper shaft supports 4217 as so as 'to rotate therewith.

Pivotally secured .to the end of fore and aft bell cranks 57 throughpins 59 and clevicesrl are fore and aft links 63, which are alsovpivotally secured at their other ends by means of olevices 65 and pins48 to fore and aft jack screws 44. Thelatter are held in mountings onsupports 46 on the frame, and driven by a single screw 67 actuated bypower means or a hand wheel (not shown).

In operation, fore and aft slice motion may easily be obtained by meansof the novel mechanism by merely rotating screw 67 to actuate thefore-and-aft jack screws in the direction desired. The members 57 areeither drawn toward or pushed away from the stationary support '46 inthe machine-wise direction causing the entire slice'supporting mechanismto pivot aboutthe axis of the main shaft 34 to which it is keyed. Thusthe composite arms consisting of the bell cranks 57 and thecorresponding arms 42a, 42b swing in either direction about the axis of-the shaft 34 rocking the same to cause similar swinging-movement of theslice supporting Varms, 38a, 38h, and hence 'swinging the slice throughAan arc backwards or forwards as desired. The swinging of the members42a, 42b and'57 will, of course, cause corresponding bodily n'swinging'of the shaft 58 about the axis of the marin shaft 34. So too, the slicelip control jack screws and associated parts will move with the members58, 38a, 38b, 42a, 42h, and 57, on which they are mounted. 'Ihe fulcrumof the lever system 55-56 thus Vis a moving one,

namely, the axis of the shaft 58, and, therefore, the slice lipadjustment is made independent of the bodily adjustment of the sliceitself,

Desired vertical movement of the slice lip 29 is given through actuationof up-'and-down jack screws 64, which rock bell cranks 55 which are inturn keyed to the upper shaft 58 and-thus rotate the latter about itsown axis, inyturn correspondingly rocking slice adjusting rod bellcranks 56, also keyed to shaft 58. f Thereby are raised or loweredcorrespondingly the slice adjusting rods 54, thus Ygiving the desired upand down movement'along the entire length of the slice lip 29 andliexingthe slice blade from a true arcuate contour. Individual adjustmentlalong the Vlength vof the slice lip 29 can be had by means ofturnbuckles 72, in the Ymanner familiar to the art. 'v

It will thus be apparent that by rotation of one screw driving thefore-and-aft jack screws, the desired fore and aft movement of theentire slice `lip may be achieved, while by rotation of one screwdriving the up-and-down ijack screws, the desired up anddown movement isachieved, Yall withouty upsetting or V affecting individual i variationsat the lip achieved by means`V of the turnbuckles.V

The novel slice control of the invention is shown as applied to asuction breast roll type ofpaper machine in FIG. '3. 'Ihe roll isindicated'by the numeral 12a having itsaxis at O and carries wire 10.The wire discharges Vfrom the roll tangentiallyapproximately alongY aline x dened by the intersection with .the roll surface of a verticalplane (indicatedin broken lines) through the axis O. A suction box Y81ismounted within :the roll and has sealing members or bales 83 engagingthe inner surface of the roll.V The roll shell is perforated as at 85 sothat liquid may be drawn therethrough by differential of air pressure.vThe apron 26a is curved,"as shown, and has vits lip 27a locatedopposite the first-bathe 83,-loffset down `the peripheryY of the roll12a from the line x through a Vdesired arcdepending on stock pressure,flow, and the suction employed.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3 the construction ofthe t ends Yto the Vlipthe proper scope to Ibe alorded as in FIG. 3, for in this environmentthe arcuate movement 0f the slice permits fore and aft adjustments ofgreater magnitude than that afforded by simple rectilinear movement ofthe ordinary slice blade. It will be seen that the swinging of theYslice lip 29 coupled with vertical movement thereof by exing the sliceitself permits operation over a much wider arcuate area of the surfaceof roll 12abelowthe line x than would be the case if the slice had onlystraight line movement.V

Although only a partial view is shown in the drawings, it will beapparent to those skilled in the art that the desired multiplicity ofelements may be repeated across the width of a paper making machine,depending on the width thereof, the weight of the parts used, and thestrength desired. Y Y

While I have herein disclosed and described a presently preferred formof the invention, it will nevertheless be understood that the same issusceptible of numerous modifications .and changes by those skilled inthe art. Therefore, I intend that the invention be'limited only by theappended claims,

I claim: v

l. Slice control mechanism mounted independently kof thev stock inlet orhead box for for -and-aft and vertical movement of the slice lip of astock inlet, effectively independent of the movement of the stock inletor any stock containing part thereof, which comprises a main shaftrotatable in iixed mountings, an upper shaft rotatable about its ownaxis, said axis being held in fixed relationship to said main shaft androtating with said main shaft when the latter is rotated, a slicemounted for fore-and-aft arcuateV movement responsive to rotation of thesaid main shaft and having 'its lip portion mounted forup-and-downmovement responsive to rotation of said upper shaft aboutitsown axis, means for rotating said main shaft, and independent meansfor rotating saidupper shaft about its own axis.

2. The mechanism of claim l in which said slice depends from supportarms operatively secured to said main shaft for rotation therewith andin which said independent means for rotating said upper shaft about itsown axis includes members pivotally secured at their lower ends to saidsupport arms at locations between said main shaft and said slice andpivotally secured at their upper ends in up-and-down bell cranks, saidup-and-down bell cranks being operatively secured to Said upper shaft torotate the same, whereby said independent means is itself movable bodilyin an arc 'about the 'axis of said main shaft.

3. Slice control mechanism of claim l which comprises in combinationwith a slice a main shaft held in vixed mountings for rotation yaboutits own axis, `a multiplicity of upper shaft supports mounted on saidmain shaft and operatively secured thereto for rotation therewith aboutthe axis thereof, an Iupper shaft rotatably secured in Vsaid'upper shaftsupports, a multiplicity of fore-and-aft bell cranks pivotally mountedon said upper shaft and being Vsecured to vsaid upper shaft. forrotation therewith about theV axis thereof, Va multiplicityA of sliceadjusting rods pivotally secured at their upper ends to said sliceVadjust*- ing rod bell cranks and pivotally secured at their lowerportion of said slice, -a multiplicity of slice .support armsoperativelysecured at their upper `ends .t0

rotatable slice and slice lip-adjusting mechanism are the Y same asbefore.V Particular advantages vare-obtainable, in

accordance with the invention, in a machine wherein the Y v sliceopening is arranged belowthe top' of the breast roll,

saidmain shaft for rotation therewith about the axis therevof, andsecured at their lower ends to Vsaid slice, a multiplicity' ofup-and-down jack screws pivotally mounted at their lowerendsintermediate portionsgof at least some of said slice support rarmsand at their upper ends inthe 'extremities of a correspondingmultiplicity of up-and-down bell cranks mounted on said upper shaft andoperatively secured thereto for rotation therewith.

4. In slice control mechanism for longitudinal and Vertical movement ofa slice mounted for movement relative to a stock inlet, the combinationwhich comprises said slice, a irst shaft mounted for rotation about axed transverse axis, longitudinal control means rotatable with saidfirst shaft for supporting said slice and a second transverse shaft,whereby both travel in an arcuate path upon rotation of said firstshaft, said second shaft, and vertical control means pivotally mountedon said sec- References Cited in the le of this patent ond shaft andsecured to said slice adjacent the lip thereof. 10 2,779,253

UNITED STATES PATENTS Bagley et al May 2, 1933 Kellett et al Jan. 12,1943 Thorsen Sept. 21, 1943 Corbin et al May 29, 'i956 McAnn lune 19,1956 Lee July 31, 1956 @Wens lan. 29, 1957

